There are many types of games out there in the world. You have your first-person shooters, RPGs, MMO’s, action-adventure, platformers, sports, driving, fighting…….and then you come upon my favorite – open-world adventure games. In recent years, nothing has appealed to me more than the idea of living in a video game world where you have the option of going anywhere you wish and doing just about anything you wish. Some games achieve this goal more than others, but at least there are some out there that make this dream a reality quite well, so I’ll share a few with you that I have played.

Assassin’s Creed – This title by Ubisoft is gorgeous. It’s one of those wide, sprawling landscapes that lets you go from city to city and wander all over the place in areas that are open. Granted, not all areas are open at first, but once they open up, it just makes the game so much larger. The later games in the series follow suit. Currently I’m on ACII, and I really enjoy it quite a bit. The side missions, as well as the story missions are well worth the time playing. I still have Brotherhood, Revelations, III, and IV to get through though, so we’ll see how well the allure lasts here.

InFamous – This was a beautiful accident waiting to happen for me. I downloaded this title out of 5 possible free titles after the PSN hack that happened a while back, and I am so happy that I chose this game. It’s gorgeous, has a GREAT storyline that keeps you going, and a ton of content to keep you going all the way through to the end. You have massive areas to explore, and a lot of collectables to obtain. What I find very cool is that they kept this chemistry up through four different games (yes, I do count Festival of Blood as a full game). I really hope they keep the momentum up going with this franchise, although I keep hoping for Cole to make a comeback in a future game.

Watch Dogs – Who doesn’t love a game that has hacking in it? Well, this game has PLENTY of that. You have the entire town of Chicago as your weapon, and you can do a LOT with it. It’s a sprawling urban landscape that is ever-changing, what with the possibility of other players hacking you and stealing you data for notoriety, being able to mess with other people, driving a TON of different vehicles, and improving your abilities all along the way! Nothing says satisfaction than taking off on your motorcycle, having the cops chase you, and then hacking some blockers to pop up, making the cars crash into them at a high rate of speed – or taking out a thug by hacking the explosive that he’s wearing, causing him to come to a bit of a messy end.

Grand Theft Auto V – This one surprised me, as I tried playing San Andreas before, and was not impressed with it. Rockstar games took what they had and reinvented themselves on a grand scale. Another game with a MASSIVE map, and lots of different missions you can play in any order that you choose! That, coupled with the GTA Online section, and you have quite a bit of game time on your hands before you’ll be done with this title. If you haven’t played a GTA title in the past, then this is the perfect one to get your feet wet into. Take it from me…….it really is a game you should check out.

Right now, I’m playing Red Dead Redemption, which looks like it’ll be another one to add to my list of games. I’ve also played Red Faction Guerilla, which lets you wander all over the place and blow the crap out of absolutely EVERYTHING. Granted, not all games are for all people, but I think these games are real keepers and worth your time to check out!